British bank Barclays has frozen the account of one of Russia's biggest state news agencies, Rossiya Segodnya, because the agency's head is under EU sanctions, the agency reported yesterday. The agency's head, Dmitry Kiselyov, was placed on the European Union's asset and travel ban list in March 2014 following Russia's annexation of the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine. The list calls Kiselyov a "central figure of government propaganda." Yesterday, the agency's English-language news service, Sputnik, said Barclays sent it a letter specifying that the account freeze was because Kiselyov "has control of the entity in his capacity as director general." "We therefore have no alternative but to apply restrictive measures in accordance with U.K. regulations," pursuant to the EU financial sanctions, the bank was quoted as saying. The agency's editor-in-chief, Margarita Simonyan, who also runs the English-language news channel RT (formerly Russia Today), called the freeze "illegal" because the agency has not been directly sanctioned. "Kiselyov personally cannot travel to Europe or have personal accounts there. Rossiya Segodnya is not under the sanctions," Simonyan wrote on Twitter. Kiselyov, in comments carried by RT, lambasted the freeze as "censorship" and a "direct obstruction of journalists' work." "What kind of press freedom and democracy can Britain claim to have if it prevents one of the world's largest news agencies from working in the country?" he said.
Rossiya Segodnya has not disclosed the amount of money held in the account, but said in comments to Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA) that it is "consulting lawyers and will use any available legal means to protect its rights."
